Next Monday marks my 45th anniversary at The Patriot Ledger. When I walked in the door at 7 a.m. on March 18, 1968, I never thought I’d be here 45 years later.

I was 24, with a good education and plenty of enthusiasm, but no journalism courses and little experience. Yet I knew I’d found what I loved to do and how lucky I was to get a break. I began on the copy desk, reading stories and writing headlines, moved to reporting and stayed there. It fit. At 69, I feel fortunate to be paid to keep learning new things I want to know anyway and to love what I do.

I often think about how much the newspaper business has changed. We’ve gone from ink-smudged sleeves and manual typewriters to computers, smartphones and mobile apps; from pencil sharpeners and notebooks to videos, recorders, laptops and IT departments.

At home I have thick manila folders filled with yellowed clippings of stories I covered. I saved ones that seemed important in my career, historical events, favorites, etc.

My first front-page story, from Thanksgiving Day 1970, was headlined “Indians Board Mayflower to Dramatize Injustices.” Native Americans from across the country held the first National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, in contrast to the traditional Thanksgiving. The photo showed Russell Means by the statue of Massasoit.

There’s the American Bicentennial in 1975, when President Gerald Ford came to Boston and Concord. The legal-abortion trial of Dr. Kenneth Edelin, convicted of manslaughter in 1975 and later acquitted.

Local reaction when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, when Pope John Paul II was shot in 1981. I was in the office when news of all three broke.

The clips remind me of offbeat features, a nice change of pace. Observing bathers’ styles as they went into the ocean. Covering psychedelic guru Timothy Leary “turned on and dropping in.” Running around with a noise meter for a two-part series on rock music and noise pollution. Inviting readers to submit mental maps of Boston. And a pathetic sports writing attempt, getting seasick “covering” the finals of the 210 nationals sailing race off Cohasset.

Back in the day, everything was new and I tried so many things, some far beyond my experience or expertise. I interviewed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, called up satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer. I dabbled in political reporting: election nights with the Rev. Robert Drinan, the first priest in Congress, and Kevin White, mayor of Boston. U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy announcing his presidential bid in Boston. And Irish humor at a St. Patrick’s Day gathering at Dorgan’s in South Boston, with state Sen. William Bulger dispensing “tart-tongued barbs.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was an exciting period of medical stories and advances in health care. “Papa Nonno” of Marshfield getting his third pacemaker at age 97. Open heart surgery, kidney transplants, knee and hip replacements.

Page 2 of 2 - All the social and cultural changes: Vietnam and the antiwar movement; the legalization of abortion; Boston school integration, busing and white flight to the suburbs; women burning bras outside the Playboy Club in Boston, and women making gains in Boston medical schools.

Newspapers were much larger and we ran more multi-part series, often team efforts. I was on a few: the Dianne DeVanna case, community mental health treatment, emergency medicine, guardianship laws.

With time, I settled into what I like best, partly because readers seemed to respond the most: human-interest stories in local communities and a weekly column on aging.

And then, post-Millenium, more big changes. Small boxes and tag lines began appearing with stories – email addresses, online websites, videos. Now we have instant reader comments, blogs and a dizzying array of online resources, and tweets are a job requirement. If you’d told me in 1968 that casual thoughts and one-liners would be flying around in cyberspace someday, I’d have laughed.

Some things, of course, don’t change. You don’t forget colleagues who are no longer here. You doubly appreciate those who still are. You realize, more and more, how generous readers can be with their tips, ideas and support.

And the young people, long so central to this newsroom, just keep getting younger. They’ve help me upload videos, decipher new software. Their eagerness to learn and dedication have always inspired me.

I remember one co-op student who worked the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift. Dan drove around on his cop checks. One night, leaving the Weymouth police station, he tripped and bashed his face. He got back in the Ledger car, returned to the office, bleeding, and filed his stories. Only then did he go to the emergency room.

Reach Sue Scheible at scheible@ledger.com, 617-786-7044, or The Patriot Ledger, P.O. Box 699159, Quincy 02269-9159. Read her Good Age blog on our website. Follow her on Twitter @sues_ledger. READ MOREGood Age columns.